This is part three to a story started in Heat and continued in Lost. It's been edited by an outside source, but some spelling and grammar mistakes may remain. Just a heads a warning.
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In a limp furry mass Lilli lay unaware on the bed as Keith stayed on his knees in shock. His mind fumbled at all the kitties he'd known and nothing like her came to mind, in either his world or the standard world.
Slowly he got to his feet thinking maybe she could have been a highbred. It was extremely rare, but not unheard of. It would explain why she had been abandoned, as most "sports" were very unwelcome.
Yet the closer he got to her the less she looked like any cats he'd seen. Sports usually looked somewhat like one of their parents; she almost looked like a Domestic cat, which was completely impossible. Domestic cats were bred into what they were, his kind were not. Myth was that they had evolved along with their wild animal cousins.
Slowly different characteristics came clear. She was a fuzzy reddish grey tabby, a compact ball sprinkled with faint spots. Her legs were loosely bared, her tail ringed, her forehead spotted - a mess of markings. Her face was slightly flattened set with low, red backed ears that framed white and black rimmed eyes. Black and white stripes ran from the corner of the eyes out, looking like fanciful makeup.
No, she wasn't a sport.
But what in the world could she be?
Quickly tucking himself back into his pants Keith stumbled to the door. Maybe Mathus had seen something like her.
Out of the room and into the kitchen where Mathus was reading and sipping at coffee, and Keith hadn't a clue what to say. In the end he just shook his head at the Alpha and asked him to come look.
When the Alpha just stared down at the kitty on the bed Keith felt his viewpoints shifting. Of course it was a completely unreasonable expectation to believe your Alpha would know everything, yet he knew he had. He knew Mathus was just a normal changer, not super human, not imbued with super powers, but he also knew that the Alphas often shared things with each other that they kept from those in their packs.
They stared down at the kitty before them, and Keith felt a moment of pity for her. She'd lived her life abandoned and unwanted, had been put through the wringer, and now he couldn't even find her a pack. As far as he was aware this was a completely unique situation. Was she doomed to be kicked out again, to struggle with her new life as best she could? Could she stay with them or would the other packs expect them to give her up? He'd promised her answers and found he could give her none.
"Holy. Fucking. Hell"
Keith really couldn't have said it any better.
The two confused leopards sat in the kitchen, thoughts to themselves. Mathus had said something about getting all the Alphas together, but had left his sentence unfinished. In the end neither of them had a clue what to do.
A wail suddenly tore through the house, pulling each man to his feet. It was a sound that should have sent shivers down their spines but actually tightened everything below their belts; it was the sound of a cat in heat. They glanced at each other and both changed into their other forms, whatever they were about to face wouldn't respond to human words and logic, not after it's very first change. They both knew that for the next few changes she'd mostly be lost to the animal nature running through her.
Mathus was a large, brightly-hided Leopard. Keith was softer and paler looking; not a snow leopard, but not standard. He knew something about sports, and while he was extremely powerful he wasn't likely to rise above the station he currently held, even though he was just a mix of leopards. Most packs would take down sports that tried to fight for the Alpha position.
They found her in the hallway, crouched low and obviously without thought, she was all cat brain, no human. It just hadn't occurred to him to shut the door; most cats changed back to human before waking if they fell asleep in cat form. She was so past the age that most cats changed for the first time that he didn't think she might stay trapped like sometimes happened in younger changes, or he hoped she wouldn't anyway.
Lilli clearly only had mating in mind and both males had to remind themselves that they were here for other reasons.
Although they hadn't talked about it, they started to "herd" her though the house toward the basement. When he'd taken on the Alpha position and the house, Mathus had had the basement converted into a safe room for cats in trouble. The walls were thickened and sound protected, the door bolted from the outside. Nearly everything easily destroyed or dangerous had been removed or locked away. The only illumination came from a caged light in the ceiling; the bed was a thick futon pad on the floor. Also included was a bathroom with a rather large tub. Mathus had wanted every one of his charges taken care of, no one left out in the cold.
Crying out her need, Lilli let herself be herded until the three of them stood in the safe room. She crouched before them, ready to be mounted but also ready to fight. Their instincts swallowing them up and they both slinked toward her, but when Mathus made to move for her Keith pushed his way between them, baring his teeth and growling. This kitty was
his
and he intended to fight for her.
For a long moment - filled with growls and hisses - the males sized each other up. Even though they were closely matched in power, Keith had never challenged his alpha. He knew doing so could lead to his death or expulsion, but at the moment he couldn't stop himself.
Finally Mathus stepped back and changed back into his human form. "I had no interest in keeping her Keith, you know what this was." With a shrug he backs out, shutting the heavy door behind himself.
Keith wasn't interested in thinking that through. Currently, he only had one thing in mind.
Throughout the next couple of days Keith did everything he could to meet Lilli's need, but nothing he did seemed to be helping at all. In cat form her heat didn't seem to respond as it had in human form, all his effort just seemed to keep it from getting worse. He begin to suspect that without climax her heat wasn't being matched; he'd never heard of such a thing, but she was turning out to be nothing anyone expected. He and Mathus agreed that sense they'd forced her to change, it would probably be best to let her come out on her own. Yet as more time passed they both started to wonder if they
should
force her back. Could she not change on her own?
Finally Keith had to admit that he couldn't keep up with her need, something that had only happened two other times. He had the position he had in the pack in part because of his high sex drive and ability to continue on when most men could not. So he brought in one of the lesser leopards, a kitty that was happy with his standing and had shown little interest in anything else. One of the few leopards he spent any time with, and the only leopard he'd ever shared a kitty with. He hadn't a clue how Lilli felt about having relations with more than one man, but at the moment he had very few other choices.
A soft heavy breathing brought Lilli out of sleep. For a moment she sighed in contentment; she was comfortable and warm, soft fur brushing her skin. Memories echoed through her and she draped her arm over the furry body in front of her, fur like velvet started to vibrate under her arm. Finally pains and need started in her, she stretched and crept out from the little cocoon she lay in.
That's when she realized the bed she was on wasn't what she was use to as a bed and that the furred body wasn't what she remembered of Keith. She pressed into the wall and noticed that Keith was asleep not far from the nearly black leopard she'd been cuddled against.
As she huddled there, wondering what had become of her, the dark leopard stretched as cats do and sort of inched toward her, a loud purr preceding him. Finally he flopped over bonelessly, heavy head thumping into her lap. There he lay, purr rattling her bones, waiting for her to relax.
Very slowly Lilli's muscles un-tensed, responding to the leopards purr; she finally reached up and oh so lightly brushed her hand down his head. The purring kicked up into a roar and the leopard rubbed his face against her belly.
It should terrify her to have such a powerful set of jaws so close to her bare stomach, but she felt no malice from him. Some part of her knew he wasn't a true leopard, but for now she was content to pretend he was a very large house cat.
In wonder Lilli brushed her hand along the magnificent creatures head, awed at herself and what she was doing. He bumped his dark head into her, rubbing his face along her belly. The deep purr crept through her, settling into her bones, creeping down her body. The animal wiggled higher and now his fur brushed along the underside of her breasts; a silky soft caress. Both hands came up to rub the leopard's ears, and somehow he purred even louder. Another brush along the underside of her breasts and Lilli shivered, the delicate caress and the rumbling of his purr was building a familiar tension in her. Even though every part of her ached and she couldn't remember being so tired, a gentle arousal washed over her.
The dark cat pressed against her, slowly sliding her down the wall until she was on her back, the large cat laying across her, rubbing against her skin. The beautiful creature stretched his neck out and while staring at her with eerily intelligent eyes he carefully brushed his chin across her nipples, his fur barely touching her.
Lilli's gasped as her nipples hardened farther. If anyone could say a cat smiled, this one did as rubbed his face along the tops of her breasts. Her back arched, her eyes fluttered closed, and that purr settled deep into her core; Lilli pressed her legs tight in response. That head rubbed against her several times before the cat hitched up slightly. The startling sensation of a harsh cat tongue scrapping along the underside of a breast pulled a sound between a gasp and a moan from her and she opened her eyes to see the leopard licking her breast with his eyes locked on her own. The knowledge that the creature atop her somehow contained a human burned through her and confusion tangled with the arousal; she couldn't tell if it bothered her more that the creature atop her contained a human, or that what was so clearly working to turn her on was a cat. Her inner turmoil had no chance to overcome how she felt because the leopard ran his tongue along the very edge of her nipple. The sharp feeling pulled a moan from her, and her eyes slid closed. The leopard continued to carefully lick all around the sensitive nub, chasing all thoughts from Lilli's brain except expectation laced with dread for where he was going next. Shivers raced through her, raising goose bumps along her skin.
